China’s environmental protection has obtained great achievements in the past years, and the nation is determined to curb air pollution and strengthen environmental protection, the minister of ecology and environment said during the ongoing Two Sessions.

Li Ganjie, the minister, said at a press conference on Mar. 11 that air quality was improved last year, with 338 major cities reporting good air quality on 79.3 percent of days on average, a 1.3 percent increase year-on-year.

In addition, heating systems in northern China have also been upgraded. Some 32 pilot cities, with more than 4.8 million households, have replaced coal with natural gas and electricity last year, according to Li.

However, China also faces crucial challenges in the battle against air pollution, including patchy implementation of strict control by governments, insufficient attention to ecological protection from local authorities, uneven progress among industries and regions, and other tasks to be overcome, Li said.

Air pollution controls have improved rapidly in recent years, but pollutant emissions have approached or exceeded the country’s carrying capacity, said Wu Shunze, head of Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy under China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in a recent interview with People’s Daily.

Meanwhile, National People’s Congress deputy Yu Huiwen, head of southwest China’s Sichuan provincial department of ecological environment, wants the government to optimize the industrial structure, adjust the energy structure, and improve production methods, as well as lifestyle, to thoroughly resolve the pollution problem.